582 German citizenship applications recently submitted in Berlin have been deleted after an IT failure hit the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA) processing centre.

Citizenship applications lost at Berlin LEA

582 recently submitted applications for German citizenship have been deleted following an IT failure at the Landesamt für Einwanderung or “Ausländerbehörde” in Berlin.

According to the LEA, problems with the Berlin IT Service Provider (ITDZ) used by the office, caused the error. All of the deleted applications were submitted after June 27, 2024, when Germany’s new dual citizenship law came into force. 

“The first applications were initially recorded but not processed correctly” due to a “software configuration error” the LEA told Tagesspiegel.

582 people must submit their citizenship applications again

According to the newspaper, the applications cannot be recovered, meaning that the applicants will have to resubmit their documents, but won’t have to twice pay the 255 euro fee which comes with submitting a citizenship application.

Affected applicants will be informed “as soon as possible” according to LEA, so that their applications can begin processing.

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